We’re all prone to distraction and sometimes hours can pass us by before we realise our productivity has dropped and our goals aren’t being accomplished.
To get yourself back on track, I'm sharing 5 straightforward steps which will help you stay productive at work.
1. Set goals. By writing down our goals (yes write, don’t just think about them), will help focus the mind on why you’re doing what you’re doing and motivate you to keep on track. I like to write mine down in a planner and have goals set for the year ahead and then broken down into manageable monthly and weekly tasks. 2. Reconsider the way you use your time. Think carefully about the times you work more effectively and what times of your day you are better focussed on doing certain tasks. If you know you're a stronger communicator in the morning, block time in your calendar for meetings and catch-ups. Likewise, if you find late afternoon is when you can easily get 'in the zone' and focus in on lengthy tasks, don't put this on your agenda for 8am, when your mind isn't in the right place for it. 3. Organise your time. Once you have considered the above, map out your week or day in advance to maximise the time you spend on work. Whether you block time in your digital calendar or write it down in a planner, transfer it from your mind and use a tangible reference to guide you through. 4. Limit distractions. We all have them and often it’s out of your control. That’s ok. But for distractions within your control, stop and think about how you can avoid them when you need to most. Listening to music for example can be fine, but the wrong type of music or radio station can be completely detrimental to concentration. So keep the music, just change the channel! A simple example but it can help no end! 5. Focus don’t multitask. For example, as tempting as it is to scroll one by one through an inbox to zap them away as they appear, it’s often not the right strategy! Use a system (colour coding, auto folder filter) to classify emails, then group by sender or topic for easy access. Prioritise a task list and work through the topics one by one. Not only will this focus your mind and keep you more engaged, but you will get through the to-do list much quicker than the other option of jumping back and forth.
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